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Lost in space

By Justin Mullins

AN AMBITIOUS goal, a brave attempt and a glorious failure. Perhaps that’s how the public will remember Beagle 2, the low-cost, high-risk mission to hunt for life on Mars. In spite of the fact that the British-built lander disappeared last December, shortly after it had arrived at the Red Planet, it captured the public imagination in the UK like no other spacecraft in recent times.

Even in the face of the loss, the team behind Beagle 2 has remained remarkably upbeat. “We’ve learned a huge amount from this mission,” says Mark Sims, the lander project manager at …